May 9, 2016

Change is in the air

In response to feedback from our user community, we are piloting a new HTML version of our newsletter, delivered directly to CLASSE staff email addresses. We hope this new format improves the readability of the newsletter, and we would like to hear what you think!

Security assessments for software purchases

A new regulation from the Cornell IT Security Office (ITSO) requires new software purchases to undergo a security assessment by the ITSO. The purpose of this rule is to reduce the occurrence of security breaches (especially those involving sensitive or confidential information) caused by purchasing software with known vulnerabilities. Therefore, please be advised that software purchases may experience a delay as a result of the security assessment process.

Symantec Endpoint Protection being discontinued

As of November 2016, IT@Cornell will no longer provide Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) for use on Cornell computers and personal computers. If you have installed SEP on a personal computer, please uninstall it before the end of October by following the instructions here: http://www.it.cornell.edu/services/antivirus/howto/. After this time, SEP on personal computers will silently cease to be updated, which may lead to a false sense of security.

For suggestions on replacing SEP on your personal computer, please see OutsideSupport.

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General network and server maintenance will occur every Tuesday from 12:00 noon to 2:00 PM. The CLASSE-IT group will always announce any expected disruptions in our NewsLetter and via CLASSE-IT-NEWS-L, but with the size and complexity of our network there is always the potential for something to go wrong. We will do our best to contain all network maintenance and planned outages to Tuesdays from 12:00 noon to 2:00 PM.

Unless other arrangements have been made, CLASSE-managed Windows systems may be updated and rebooted on Tuesday morning at 2:00 AM, so please avoid critical or lengthy operations at that time. For more details, please see SystemExpectations.

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Questions or problems? Submit a service request.

Other resources:

• CLASSE IT Home Page
• Previous newsletters

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